


a little grease & a lot of love

by HardNoctLife



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Car Accidents, Childhood, Family, Family Feels, Family Fluff, Father-Daughter Relationship, Gen, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-21
Updated: 2020-12-21
Packaged: 2021-03-10 23:07:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,008
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28215198
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HardNoctLife/pseuds/HardNoctLife
Summary: One phone call changed Cid Sophiar and Cindy Aurum's life forever.Looking back, they wouldn't have it any other way.
Relationships: Cindy Aurum & Cid Sophiar
Comments: 4
Kudos: 15





	a little grease & a lot of love

**Author's Note:**

> This fic was written for [A Father's Love: A FFXV Zine.](https://twitter.com/FatherFfxv)

Cid Sophiar remembers that night clearly, the details of it more vivid than most of his memories, the majority of which have faded over time.

It started with a phone call.

* * *

“Ring-ring-ring! Ring-ring-ring!”

“What in tarnation?!”

The world is dark inside the makeshift bedroom in the back of the Hammerhead garage, a lonesome cot shoved into one of the larger storage closets, barely able to squeeze between a dresser and a nightstand.

The shrill cry of the shop’s telephone continues, echoing off concrete and metal. 

“Ring-ring-ring! Ring-ring-ring!”

Cid Sophiar groans. Realizing he's not dreaming, he finally rolls over to squint at the neon green numbers of the digital clock on his nightstand. It’s too damn late for anyone with sense to be calling, which can only mean one thing.

Bad news.

Bones and muscles protest with cracks and twinges as Cid finds his legs under him, all grogginess fleeing as he scrambles to find the phone. His bare feet smack the cold floor as he hurries into the garage and snatches the receiver from its cradle.

Uneven breaths fill the abrupt silence. “Hello?” he gasps.

“Cid? It’s Takka—there…there’s been an accident, up here at the outpost.” There’s a pause, which rapidly fills with all of Cid’s worst fears, his stomach dropping nauseatingly. “Mid and Melba, they…” Takka breaks off, voice wavering.

Cid waits, and time slows to a crawl.

“…they didn’t make it, Cid. I’m sorry, man, I’m so, so sorry.”

He doesn’t know how he ends up on the floor, too focused on the sharp pain flaring in his chest, spreading like a gunshot wound. Cid thinks he hears Takka say something about a daemon attack, but he can’t be sure. All of his thoughts are a jumbled, tangled mess, and the only thing that feels real is the constant aching beneath his ribcage, a stabbing pressure that makes it hard to breathe.

“Cid? Cid, you still there?”

He finds his voice around a heavy tongue and stiff lips, briefly registering he must be cold by how his body shivers. “…yeah.” He silently prays to wake up from what has become his worst nightmare.

“Cid, I’ve got Cindy with me. I’m bringing her to Hammerhead.”

Some of the fog over Cid’s mind lifts, a sliver of hope breaking through. _She's alive?_ _She’s alive!_ Cid realizes. His only grandchild, _alive_.

“We’ll be there first thing in the morning.”

“Alright,” Cid agrees. He’s surprised by his own strength as he pushes himself up off the floor, wiping dirt decidedly off his knees. “I’ll be waiting.”

* * *

When Takka’s truck finally pulls into the rest stop, Cid is finishing his fourth cup of coffee, but his eyes still feel heavy, no amount of caffeine able to purge the exhaustion from his body.

There’s no cure for heartbreak.

The first thing Cid notices when the child steps around Takka is how her golden hair stands out against the metallic gray of the garage doors, reddened, rusted cars drawing out the olive green of her eyes.

She is small— _so_ small—but she wobbles towards Cid without so much as grabbing for Takka’s hand, surer in her steps than any adult. He inhales sharply when she comes to a stop in front of his favorite lawn chair, the last tendrils of steam from his coffee cup curling into the air.

She blinks at him, small nose scrunching with the effort of remembering his face. “Paw-Paw?”

Her hands are already reaching towards him. Cid ducks his head to hide the emotion that is beginning to take shape at the corner of his eyes, forcing a laugh.

“Yes, sweetheart, that’s right, it’s your Paw-Paw.”

He scoops her into his arms. She’s the lightest burden he will ever carry.

Setting her on one knee, he eyes Takka solemnly. “I figure it’s you and me now, kid,” Cid murmurs.

Cindy grabs for his beard with childlike wonder, too young to understand the gravity of the situation. He lets her tug on it, a true smile emerging that creases the already wrinkled skin on his face. Part of him is grateful that she’s unable to comprehend what has happened—that she will be spared that pain.

“I’ll bring her things in,” Takka offers quietly, moving towards the truck to pull her single suitcase from the trunk.

When Cid sees it, the weight of the responsibility he is about to undertake finally hits him.

 _How am I gonna raise a little girl_ and _run Hammerhead?_

He’s not a spring chocobo anymore, and worries that it will be too much for someone his age to handle, but what other choice does he have? The Leiden countryside is no place for a little kid, but he’ll be damned if he abandons her. His son and daughter-in-law would never forgive him if he backed down now.

_I’m all she’s got._

“A little grease, and a lotta love, kid,” Cid states as he ruffles Cindy’s hair affectionately. “That’s how we’ll make it through.”

Cindy babbles happily, unbothered, and Cid figures that he’ll take it as a sign of approval. Planting a kiss on the girl’s forehead, he makes a solemn promise:

_I’ll never let anything harm you, Cindy. Not so long as I live and breathe._

* * *

The days are getting longer, and the sun more unforgiving, and Hammerhead’s garage is the equivalent of an oven. Cid wipes sweat from his brow with the back of one gloved hand, sighing heavily from where he is bent over the popped hood of an old clunker.

The truck, like him, has seen better days.

He inherited it several months ago from a friend who had since given up on fixing it. ‘Good luck getting it to run again’, the man had told him, but Cid knows the ol’ thing’s still got some life in it and believes it’s worth saving, so he toils until the shadows grow long, grease and dirt mixing with sweat and frustration.

“Paw-Paw? I’m hungry.”

Cid pauses, having forgotten that Cindy is seated on the bench behind him. Even after two years of living together, he still hasn’t quite gotten used to the child’s constant presence at the rest stop.

The girl’s hands rest on her knees, faded dress stained from a spontaneous run through a mud puddle on their last rainy day. She swings her bare feet idly, legs still not long enough to touch the ground.

One quick look at the sky is all Cid needs to know that it is past dinner time, and he sets his tools aside with a sheepish smile.

“Sorry, baby doll. You know how Paw-Paw gets,” he says in apology. Pressing hands into the small of his back, he arches, groaning a little at the ache that has become more constant in recent months. “Let’s eat, huh?”

Cindy jumps up with a grin that rivals the summer sun, and Cid can’t help but match her enthusiasm. Even after everything she’s been through, she’s the happiest kid I’ve ever seen. He takes her hand as they walk towards Takka’s diner.

Cid worries if he’s doing right by her. After all, she might be better off living somewhere where she can be around other kids her age instead of watching him in the shop day in and day out. It feels wrong to be keeping her cooped up and away from the rest of the world, the guilt of it adding to the natural pains that come with his age.

“Cindy?” he eventually says, watching the child slurp down a milkshake bigger than she is.

The child blinks her big eyes at him in response, and Cid feels his insides melt.

_Keep it together, old man._

“Honey, I've been thinkin’.” He strokes his beard, gathering his words. “If you don’t like it much here, we could always…y’know, we could send you to stay with your auntie up in Lestallum. I reckon there are more kids your own age up there.”

Cindy slowly pushes the glass in front of her aside, lower lip quivering. “…you want me to go away?”

The question is a stab in the heart.

“No, ‘course not, sweetheart—”

“I could help,” Cindy interrupts frantically, tiny hands pressing flat on the table. “Around the shop! I can clean, or bring you water when it’s hot—and I won’t play in the mud anymore, and I promise I’ll be good—”

With each word, Cindy becomes more animated, an animalistic panic emerging.

“Cindy—” Cid tries to say, but he stops when he sees the tears in his granddaughter’s eyes.

“Please Paw-Paw, don’t send me away!” she cries.

Cid stands abruptly, moving around to the other side of the booth where Cindy is now sobbing. The few customers in the diner graciously keep their gazes averted down into their coffee cups.

“Shh, baby girl, I ain’t gonna send you away,” he insists, rubbing a hand along the girl’s back reassuringly.

_I could never do that._

She’s all snot-nosed now, eyes red-rimmed, but she’s still the most beautiful thing Cid has ever seen. “P-promise?”

He sighs heavily, resigned, and uses his free hand to wipe the remaining tears from his granddaughter’s face as she sniffles.

“I swear on the sun and all the stars,” Cid says. “You ain’t going nowhere.”

* * *

“Paw-Paw, Paw-Paw, wake up!”

“What in Ifrit’s hellfire—”

Cid rubs at his eyes, the now lightening sky visible through the window overhead. His granddaughter looms above him, grinning like a daemon, albeit the prettiest one he ever did see.

She’s grown more than he likes to admit.

One year ago, she was still below his shoulder, but this past summer she shot up like a wildflower. Now, she’s long and lean, and three times as beautiful (Bahumut give him strength), with curves like some sorta luxury car that you can only buy in the city. Worst of all, she knows it, but still prefers to run around in cut-off t-shirts and ball caps, oil painting her nails and dirt her only makeup.

To Cid, she’ll always be that bright-eyed little girl from ten years ago.

_Man, how time flies._

“Come on, get up!” Cindy urges, tugging at her grandfather’s arm so that he nearly falls out of bed.

Cid’s laughing by the time he’s vertical. “Alright, alright! Where’s the fire, kid?”

The girl keeps a firm grip on him, stronger than she looks, and drags Cid impatiently through the garage and out into the morning air. The first bite of autumn makes Cid shiver, feet numb on the cool asphalt.

“I finally did it, Paw,” Cindy declares as they round the corner of the building.

His eyes fall on the rusted truck he has long since given up on, nearly forgotten where it is parked in the barren field behind Hammerhead. The mechanic once believed he could make it run again, but after a few years of half-hearted tinkering, he reluctantly threw in the towel.

He watches Cindy with awe as she climbs into the driver’s seat, the door creaking on its hinges as she opens it. Turning the keys still in the ignition, he stares in blatant disbelief as the vehicle coughs and sputters before coming alive with a rattling roar. Cindy’s victorious smirk and whoop of delight are transposed against Cid’s slack-jawed expression of disbelief.

“Well, I’ll be damned!” Cid scratches his head as Cindy jumps out and runs to his side, slinging her arm around him.

“I learned from the best,” she declares.

He thinks that she looks prouder than a chocobo that just won its first race, and it stirs something in him, something he hasn't felt in far too long. Squeezing Cindy in tight so she won’t see the glassy look in his eyes, he can’t help but laugh at the irony of it all.

“You really did it, kid,” he murmurs.

His lips brush the crown of her head.

_Time, slow down. Let her be my little girl for jus’ a bit longer._

Together, they listen to the truck’s rasps, the future’s winding road stretched out endlessly before them.

**Author's Note:**

> You can find me on Twitter @HardNoctLife or tumblr @hard-noct-life


End file.
